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Article published In:
Metaphor in Religion and Spirituality
Edited by Stephen Pihlaja
[Metaphor and the Social World 7:1] 2017
► pp. 103–121

“Truth is like a vast tree”

Metaphor use in Gandhi’s autobiographical narration

| University of Chester
This article focuses on Gandhi’s use of biblical metaphor in the English translation of his autobiography “The Story of My Experiments with Truth” (1940). The aim of the analysis is to show how Gandhi appropriated Christian ideology to his own life story when presenting it to an English-speaking audience. Given that metaphor use is “seldom neutral” (Semino, 2008, p. 32), underlying conceptual mappings can be revealing, particularly when the same conceptual frame is employed systematically across a text or discourse situation. Analysis of the English translation reveals a use of biblical metaphor which may constitute a deliberate appropriation of Christian ideology. This article suggests potential motivations for this appropriation, linking the text’s metaphor use to Gandhi’s desire to reform Hinduism and intention to counter the rising tide of Hindu-Christian conversion that threatened the success of his campaign for Indian political and spiritual independence.
Keywords: conceptual metaphor theory, Gandhi, “The Story of My Experiments with Truth”
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background and method
  • 3.Analysis
    • 3.1Plants
    • 3.2Biblical metaphor
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 20 July 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/msw.7.1.07nea
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